Arsenal Women- Here comes the summer

It may not have escaped your notice that Arsenal Women are the champions of Europe. It was a pretty decent way to end the 2024/25 season all told. So what now? Some key dates and information for the summer and ahead of next season.

Next season
First things first, Arsenal now do not have to go through the onerous qualifying stage for next season’s Champions League. As the runner-up in the WSL, initially they would have needed to compete in a two-legged playoff game in September against a likely unseeded team to ensure their passage into the group stage. As tournament winners, they no longer have to do that and go straight into the league phase. 2024-25 was the last time the Women’s Champions League adopted the group stage format with four groups of four, next season it will follow the ‘Swiss model’ adopted by the men’s Champions League with an 18 team league phase.

The prize money for winning this season’s Champions League is not significant at €1,705,000. While this is significantly higher than it was a few seasons ago, the reality is that it probably doesn’t even cover the cost of Arsenal flying their staff out on a chartered plane to Lisbon and housing everyone in a five star hotel for the final. The finance uplift will have to be secondary in terms of subsequent commercial interest and, hopefully, a further uptick in attendances. The plan is, again, we believe to use the Emirates Stadium as much as possible for WSL home games next season but the partnership with Meadow Park will remain for cup games. There are improvements being made on Meadow Park for next season as we speak.

Each team will play six games in the league phase. At the moment, the confirmed teams are Arsenal, Lyon, Paris Saint Germain, Wolfsburg, Barcelona, Chelsea, Juventus and Benfica. The other 10 will be determined in the qualifying rounds. As Champions League winners, Arsenal will also contest the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2026 over a week in late January and early February (location TBC). They will go into the semi-final and play either Auckland AFC, Wuhan Jiangda or the CAF Champions League winners the latter of whom are TBD.

The new WSL season will get underway across the first weekend in September (6-7) and conclude on May 16 or 17. There will be the usual winter break which will run from December 22 until January 10-11.

The summer
There is the small matter of Euro 2025 taking place this summer in Switzerland, which runs from 2 July until 27 July. Currently Manu Zinsberger (Austria), Lotte Wubben-Moy, Leah Williamson, Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly and Beth Mead (England), Mariona Caldentey (Spain)- Laia Codina is currently an injury doubt, Frida Maanum (Norway), Lia Walti (Switzerland), Daphne van Domselaar and Victoria Pelova (Netherlands), Rosa Kafaji and Stina Blackstenius (Sweden) are all in line to compete for their countries.

The WSL transfer window runs officially opens on 18 June and closes on Tuesday 13 September. Arsenal have already announced that Lina Hurtig, Teyah Goldie and Amanda Ilestedt will leave when their contracts expire at the end of June. Clearly, Arsenal will be in the market to augment the squad as they are every summer.

We believe another fast wide player is among the priorities, in addition to tying loanee Chloe Kelly down to a permanent contract. A versatile option who can cover right-back is, we believe, another priority with Laura Wienroither expected to leave the club permanently. We also believe that the club are keen to tie down some core players to new contracts with some players expected to be offered uplifted terms to reflect their performance and growing status in the team. With seven members of the first team 30 or over there is also a need to bring the age profile of the squad down a little.

On Arseblog News
We will keep the Arsenal Women Arsecast with myself and Jamie rolling through the summer. It might not be weekly, maybe fortnightly and / or as events dictate. Every time there is a new signing, we will profile them on the podcast with someone that knows them well too. We will perhaps use the opportunity to touch on some wider subjects around women’s football as well.

All news, exclusive or otherwise, will be posted on Arseblog News too. Please remember that we make content for this site and not for social media sites so bookmark our dedicated Arsenal Women section on Arseblog News. This site carries no external advertising and all our women’s coverage is free and will remain so, so if reposting info from us on social media, please remember to post a link to the story too. Read More